Share your Office 365 Home subscription with up to four people

If you've purchased Office 365 Home, you can share your subscription benefits with up to four other people.

At no extra cost, each person gets:

The latest version of the Office apps for PC, Mac, tablets, and smart phones.

To install Office, each person needs their own Microsoft account and personal My Office Account page. If they don't already have a Microsoft account, they can create one when they accept your invitation to share. It's free.

People you share your subscription benefits with get their own OneDrive storage. Don't worry: They can't access files or folders on your personal OneDrive storage, though you can share files with them if you want. To learn how, see Share OneDrive files and folders

Want to install Office 365 Home for yourself on another device? You don't need to share your Office 365 Home subscription with yourself to install it on another device. Just sign in to your My Office Account page on the device you want to install on, and choose Install.

How to share your Office 365 Home subscription benefits

Sign in to your My Office Account page. Be sure to use the same Microsoft account that you used to set up your subscription.

In the Share Office 365 section, choose Share Office 365.

Notes:

If you don't see the Share Office 365 section, you may not be the owner of the Office 365 Home subscription. If you're using an Office 365 Home subscription that someone else shared with you, or if you have another type of Office 365 subscription, you can't share your subscription with other people.

You also may not have an Office 365 Home subscription. Check the product name above the Install section on your My Office Account page. Office 365 Personal and Office 365 University don't include subscription sharing.

On the Share Office 365 page, choose Add people.

Before you share with someone: Think about how many devices you want them to install on and discuss it with them. As the owner of the Office 365 Home subscription, you can deactivate any install from your My Office Account page if you find you're running out, but it's a good idea to set expectations up front. Learn more about this and what to do if someone doesn't receive an invitation in the How to manage who you've shared with, invitations, and installs section.

Before someone installs Office: Make sure that their computer meets the system requirements. For example, the latest version of Office can't be installed on Chromebooks, or computers Windows running Windows Vista or Windows XP.

Use Microsoft family to share your Office 365 Home subscription benefits

Select the family members you want to share with. If you add more people to your Microsoft family later, you can share your subscription benefits with them then.

How to manage who you've shared with, invitations, and installs

You can share your Office 365 Home subscription benefits with up to four people. Over time, you may want to share with different people or deactivate Office installs on older computers and install Office on new computers. It's easy to do: Just go to your My Office Account page, choose Share Office 365, and then follow these instructions.

Manage people and Office installs

Use the Manage people section on the My Office Account > Share Office 365 page to view and manage how people are using your Office 365 Home subscription and Office installs.

For example, if all your available installs are being used, and you want to free up an install, you have two options:

Deactivate an Office install Deactivating an install doesn’t remove someone from your Office 365 Home subscription. It just puts an install on a specific device into read-only mode and frees up an Office install for another device. The person you shared your subscription with can still view and print their Office files; they just can't edit them or create new ones. They get to keep their extra OneDrive storage and can still use your Office installs, if more become available.

Stop sharing your subscription with someone When you stop sharing your subscription with someone, they lose all their Office 365 Home subscription benefits, including extra OneDrive storage and the ability to use your Office installs. They can still view and print their Office files, but they can't edit them or create new ones.

Manage invitations

Use the Manage invitations section on the My Office Account > Share Office 365 page to view and manage the invitations you've created. You can check the status of an invitation, or resend or delete invitations.

Help for the people you've shared your subscription with

When you share your subscription with someone, they get an email from Microsoft telling them that you've shared your Office 365 Home subscription with them. All they need to do is click the Accept button in the email and go to their My Office Account page to install Office, access their OneDrive storage, and more.